Between 1927 and 1941, workers blasted 450,000 tons of rock from a mountainside using chisels, jackhammers, and dynamite. Gradually, they carved out Mount Rushmore. Today, the monument draws nearly 3 million people to South Dakota's Black Hills every year. But its façade belies a dark history. Ned Blackhawk and Jeffrey D. Means explore the destruction of the sacred Six Grandfathers Mountain. [Directed Anton Bogaty, narrated by Jake Hart, music by Cem Misirlioglu and Greg Chudzik].

Ned Blackhawk and Jeffrey D. Means: The dark history of Mount Rushmore

The dark history of Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore's creation, carving 450,000 tons of rock, hides a tumultuous history with the Lakota Sioux and broken US treaties.

The 1868 Treaty at Fort Laramie, promising the Black Hills to the Sioux, was violated for gold, leading to Mount Rushmore on sacred land.

Despite a Supreme Court ruling for compensation over the Black Hills, the Sioux refuse, asserting, "they were never for sale."